Critics' Choice

BOOKS

THE DEATH OF METHUSELAH AND OTHER STORIES by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $17.95). At 83, the Yiddish yarn spinner shows undiminished power to capture the peculiar din of human commerce.

ELIA KAZAN: A LIFE by Elia Kazan (Knopf; $24.95). A bruising, unbridled autobiography by a noted film and theatrical director and force of nature.

THE DAY OF CREATION by J.G. Ballard (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $17.95). The quest for a hidden river in the Sahara unleashes a mythic adventure. Splendid surrealism from the author of Empire of the Sun.

CINEMA

ARIA. Assign ten directors to work daft magic on ten of opera's greatest hits, and the result is this beguiling pastiche of long-haired "videos." Ken Russell wins top prize for his Turandotty dream sequence.

WHITE MISCHIEF. The African sun sets British blue blood sizzling in a steamy adaptation of James Fox's chronicle of decadence and murder in the Kenyan colony.

BEETLEJUICE. Is it the fey humor or the calypso tunes that have made this movie a monster hit? Most likely it is Michael Keaton's turbodrive performance as a haunt who is hot to party.

MUSIC

TRACY CHAPMAN: TRACY CHAPMAN (Elektra). Forthright, angry new folk music from a 24-year-old Bostonian. Short on subtlety, maybe, but supple and generous of heart.

ZIGGY MARLEY AND THE MELODY MAKERS:

CONSCIOUS PARTY (Virgin). Fleet reggae, produced by two members of the Talking Heads. Bob Marley's son not only carries on his father's tradition but advances it.

BARTOK: SONATA FOR TWO PIANOS AND PERCUSSION; BRAHMS: "HAYDN" VARIATIONS (CBS). Conductor Georg Solti hits the keyboard, joining Pianist Murray Perahia in a rousing pair of masterworks for two pianos.

THEATER

CHESS. Trevor Nunn (Cats, Les Miserables, Starlight Express) directs a fourth Broadway musical barn burner, mixing board games, romance, East-West relations and a superb rock score.

| JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE. Playwright August Wilson tops his last Broadway hit, Fences, with a mystical and moving slice of life set in a black boardinghouse in 1911.

THE TALE OF LEAR. Japanese avant-garde Director Tadashi Suzuki and four U.S. regional theaters jointly create an incantatory short version of Shakespeare's tragedy, now at StageWest in Springfield, Mass.

TELEVISION

THE TRIAL OF BERNHARD GOETZ (PBS, May 11, 9 p.m. EDT on most stations). New York City's subway vigilante at the bar of justice again, in a drama based on trial transcripts.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOB (NBC, May 16, 8 p.m. EDT). On the occasion of his 85th, America's Mount Rushmore of comedy, Bob Hope, is feted in a three-hour prime- time special.

BABY M (ABC, May 22 and 23, 9 p.m. EDT). Fresh off the front page: JoBeth Williams portrays Mary Beth Whitehead, the surrogate mother who launched the famous custody battle.